The United Daily News Group, a leader in Taiwan's media, faces the imminent death of the country's newspaper industry. The founder's grandson took over as the company's chair just four years earlier, during a time when an increasing number of readers were turning to the Internet for their news. Looking ahead, he needs to sustain the company's future development while recognizing that the business of running traditional newspapers may no longer be profitable. He needs to assess the company's strengths, integrate the group's resources, improve news content, introduce digital media and, in doing so, create a new business model. He wonders how to best initiate the integration of resources and which media innovations he should introduce.
NTL Lemnis, a joint venture between NTL Electronics of India and Lemnis Lighting of the Netherlands, has ambitious sales targets and is considering entry into the business-to-consumer (B2C) segment. The company aims to offer energy-efficient LED products to Indian and international markets under the globally acclaimed Lemnis brand Pharox. Top management is planning a sales force structure for the consumer market and is analyzing the design of a sales force in the context of generalist and specialist structures. It is pondering the recruitment and selection strategies at NTL Lemnis so that it can hire a best-in-class sales force. What is the proper size of the sales team? Apprehensions about the effective distribution model to use to increase the reach of the company’s products also persist.
The United Daily News Group, a leader in Taiwan’s media, faces the imminent death of the country’s newspaper industry. The founder’s grandson took over as the company’s chair just four years earlier, during a time when an increasing number of readers were turning to the Internet for their news. Looking ahead, he needs to sustain the company’s future development while recognizing that the business of running traditional newspapers may no longer be profitable. He needs to assess the company’s strengths, integrate the group’s resources, improve news content, introduce digital media and, in doing so, create a new business model. He wonders how to best initiate the integration of resources and which media innovations he should introduce. See supplement cases 9B15M076 and 9B15M077.
Ron Hopkins had just finished his first year as founder, president, head mechanic, chief cook, and lead tour guide for the Colorado & Utah Canyon Tours Company (CUCTC). The first year had been a good one, and Hopkins thought he probably had made a small profit-after all, he had ended the year with a positive balance in the CUCTC checking account. Among the many roles and tasks he performed at CUCTC, however, accountant/bookkeeper was not one of them. For that task, he calls on his former college roommate, Chris Norris to prepare the financial statements needed for a $300,000 loan application he intended to make at Lofton National Bank next month. Norris plans to organize the CUCTC financial notes and records Hopkins has sent him.
Ten years after expanding abroad, Chinese telecommunications equipment maker Huawei faces espionage accusations from the US government, a claim that has shut it out of most of the US market. Now the threat has started to hinder potential deals in Canada, a market it entered only four years ago. This is a market where it has gradually built a market presence with a strategic focus vital to its global research initiatives. Sean Yang, president of Huawei's Canadian operations, must now reaffirm the company's commitment to Canada and regain its customers' trust. This case focuses on the changing competitive landscape in the global and regional environment, and describes the constraints on and advantages of an emerging-markets multinational operating in developed markets. It can also be adopted for teaching external analysis, including PESTEL, five-forces, driving-forces and key success-factor analyses.
Vita is a Norwegian cosmetics retailer owned by FSN Capital, a Scandinavian private equity company. The company has a strong market position in Norway. The case focuses on two strategic issues: how to develop an e-commerce strategy to supplement the company's traditional retail strategy, and how best to grow the company in Sweden. While both of these are potentially important future growth drivers, they also entail large investments in new capabilities, adversely affecting current performance. Given FSN's investment horizon, what is the best way to balance the short and long-term?
This case is based on an ex post assessment conducted in Peru. The circumstances surrounding this evaluation were very restrictive: a limited budget as well as lacking base line and adequate monitoring system. The evaluation was requested at the endof the project, with the evaluators having no control over the information gathered earlier; however, they tried to use the best methodological options available to assess the program. Suddenly, an opportunity presents itself for the evaluators to recommend a better assessment methodology for the second stage in this program and even to suggest some adjustments for its original program design. A special feature in this case is that students do not start from scratch: they have information about what happened in the first stage of the project, and they can use it to build, amidst a new setting, a sounder, more ambitious evaluation procedure for the second stage, before its launching. The social and economic effects/impact of the project's first stage were measured with a non-experimental method, without a control group. For their evaluation work, the consultants relied on two surveys administered to a group of selected women's organizations that had received micro-loans. The first survey focused on the progress made by business ventures funded with these loans, and the second one probed the social impact of the project on members' households. Against the described backdrop, in the first stage, the evaluators used the perceptions of the people involved in the project to gather information on their earlier situation. The second stage evaluation would have a more adequate assessment design and would be submitted with recommendations for project execution improvements. To this end, consultants would have to submit their technical plan and the budget required to successfully meet assessment expectations.
In 2008, a group of five entrepreneurs and executives teamed up to launch an innovative hotel chain into what seemed like a highly competitive industry. Rattan Chadha, the founder of fashion company MEXX and Michael Levie, a hotel industry veteran, teamed up with Hans Meyer, a hotel development specialist, Campagne corporate strategist Klaas van Lookeren, and architect and interior designer Rob Wagemans to launch the new concept. They took a different approach to innovation in the hospitality sector. Instead of trying to invent few features - products and services - with which to attract a broad range of customers, they innovated by removing what they believed to be features that were not attractive to a core consumer target: tech-savvy, mobile travellers. The citizenM case details the differences between this new hotel concept and the typical features offered by luxury and high-to mid-range hotels. Each aspect of the customer-facing experience and behind-the-scenes operating model is discussed and defined. It describes the tight fit between all aspects of citizenM's innovative business model, ranging from the location of their hotels, their construction, the facilities (and absence there-off), staffing, operations, and marketing. The case ends by outlining citizenM's prospects as the leadership team looks to grow their new concept.
Founded in 2003 in Uruguay, by 2008 Pay True Solutions had managed to become a relevant player in the Latin American industry of electronic payment solutions. The company offered two suites: PayStudio CPS, providing technological support across the entire electronic payment processing value chain, and PayStudio Risk Center, a fraud detection and prevention solution largely for credit and debit cards. Both suites had been installed at renowned regional companies and boasted excellent reviews in the low-sophistication client segment. The segment encompassing larger clients was characterized by more sophisticated fraud attacks and, as a result, required solutions featuring neuronal models, which PayTrue did not offer. In addition, the software development projects sold by PayTrue had grown increasingly complex dedicating an important part of the internal resources; interestingly, the company generally managed to deliver on time and within budget, unlike some of their competitors. Would the company be able to manage the expected growth in both, products and projects? Was their mixed business model sustainable? And, considering their products, should they go for the bigger and more sophisticated clients? Were the risks of a higher level of investment in innovation worthwhile?
The first of this two-part case, "Principled Capitalism", analyses the unique values-based leadership practised for 186 years by the Cadbury owners, particularly how its strongly Quaker-inspired leaders developed a unique socially-engaged form of capitalism. Through the history of the Cadbury family, it describes the global development of the chocolate industry. Driven by a handful of dedicated entrepreneurs, and dominated in the UK by Quakers, it was an industry where an innovation could change the market overnight.
Part 2 "Sold for 20p" analyses the many governance challenges the Cadburys faced. From their merger with the troubled Fry's in 1918, which significantly enlarged the number of family owners, the transfer of their ownership to charity foundations, the motivation and long-term consequences of listing the firm in 1962, a strategic merger with Schweppes in 1969 and forced demerger in 2008, and the family's exit with the hostile takeover by Kraft in 2010, it offers valuable lessons in how family firms can use ownership design to mitigate business and family roadblocks, and how dilution of ownership can have unforeseen consequences and ultimately leave the family firm vulnerable to predators.
DSM, a global life sciences, business-to-business company, is in the midst of a massive multi-year corporate rebranding exercise to incorporate the concept of creating sustainable shared value. With few precedents in this industry, the company must develop its own processes and implementation. Students are challenged to define the next steps in the rebranding, including the promotion of DSM's sustainability positioning as its key differentiator.
DSM, a global life sciences, business-to-business company, is in the midst of a massive multi-year corporate rebranding exercise to incorporate the concept of creating sustainable shared value. With few precedents in this industry, the company must develop its own processes and implementation. Students are challenged to define the next steps in the rebranding, including the promotion of DSM’s sustainability positioning as its key differentiator.
3D printing was a bottom-up process by which materials were laid down in thin successive layers until an object was fully constructed. As an innovation in technique, 3D printing made production conducted at or near the points of purchase or consumption possible. This had a huge impact on traditional manufacturing industry and supply chain management. A variety of key 3D-printing patents expired in 2014, stimulating mass production and adoption of 3D-printing devices. 3D printing was likely to provide a solution to supply chain management challenges by printing low-volume and tailor-made products on-site, a solution that would also reduce materials-supply risks, supply chain network complexity and inventory costs. Imitative innovation, well-established manufacturing infrastructure and relatively low labor and material costs made rapid growth of 3D-printer manufacturing in China possible. In recent years, China rapidly embraced the 3D-printing trend and explored the new, greatly expanded 3D-printing manufacturing and export market space. What role could 3D printing play in changing supply-chain management? What could the short-term and long-term impact of 3D printing on the Chinese manufacturing industry be? Could China leverage the coming 3D-printing trend to reinforce the power of its manufacturing industry?
In spite of the world's move to digital photography, in 2013 Lomography continues to design and offer analog (film) cameras to a loyal following of artistic photographers. Now it must decide whether to stick to its traditional offerings, expand into artistic lenses for both digital and analog cameras, and/or to expand into film and film developing. In the process, it has to decide what kind of company it wants to be.
This case describes a hypothetical situation faced by a fictitious international conglomerate, ICL, that intends to enter the retail grocery market in Hong Kong. The conglomerate's interest in the Hong Kong supermarket industry was initially kindled by the plan of Hutchison Whampoa, Ltd. (HWL) to sell its leading supermarket chain PARKnSHOP in August 2013. However, in October 2013, HWL reversed course and decided not to sell PARKnSHOP, saying that the sale would not deliver maximum value to its shareholders. Before embarking into new territory, ICL wanted an in-depth understanding of the Hong Kong grocery market environment, competitors, and potential barriers to entry. The conglomerate was aware that the new Competition Law, which was expected to take effect in 2015, might have profound implications on the grocery market landscape in Hong Kong.
In April 2013, Ron Johnson (HBS '84) stepped down after just 18 months as CEO of J.C. Penney. In his brief tenure, Johnson, an acclaimed retailer respected for his innovation and success in shaping the retail image at Target and Apple, introduced dramatic departures from J.C. Penney's traditional retail approach and enacted changes quickly and simultaneously, with little market testing. Over Johnson's final 12 months as CEO, J.C. Penney shares dropped more than 50%. The case describes the environments at Target, Apple, and J.C. Penney during Johnson's tenure and how his experiences may have shaped the strategies that he implemented while CEO at J.C. Penney.